A Guide To Anxiety Cognitive Therapy

Psychotherapy is a techniques used by trained psychotherapists to help people increase their sense of well-being, by using intentional interpersonal relationship. There is a range of techniques that is used to improve the overall physical and mental health of a client. Psychotherapy is performed by psychologists, licensed clinical social worker, psychiatric nurses, counselors, psychologies and psychiatrists.

Anxiety cognitive therapy helps people change their perception of things. We all have a set of beliefs and emotions in relation to our environment and surroundings. Some of these beliefs are too rigid or strong, and through this therapy, the client learns to modify these beliefs so that they become less extreme.

Anxiety cognitive therapy has been successfully used to treat anxiety disorders, depression, phobias and many other mental disorders. The main idea is to recognize the distorted thinking, and then learn to replace it with more practical, realistic and positive thoughts and ideas. It is believed that depression and anxiety are associated with irrational thoughts, and anxiety cognitive therapy is used along with mood stabilizing medications to treat these disorders.

The anxiety cognitive therapy was invented by Aaron Beck and Albert Ellis in 1950s, and has come a long way since then. The therapy is based on understanding the behaviors and thoughts that influence emotions and feelings. Anxious or depressed people usually have automatically negative thinking styles, that lead to negative feelings and they are consciously not aware of these distortions. Anxiety cognitive therapy brings these cognitive distortions into person’s conscious focus so that these distortions can be adjusted by using the rational thinking. Using continuous repeated adjustments, the brain learns to create more positive automatic associations. The research has indicated that brain can re-pattern the neural pathways over 45 days.

Anxiety cognitive therapy uses four-column technique, and is a four-step process. First three steps help analyze the process that has made the client distressed or anxious. First column is used to record the objective situation, second column is used by the client to note down the negative thoughts occurring to them, third column is used to note the ensued dysfunctional behaviors and negative feelings, and fourth column is used to challenge the negative thoughts based on the evidence from experience of client.

Related Articles

The term “postpartum depression” refers to depressive episodes following childbirth. These can occur after the birth of any child, not just the first. Depressive episodes can even follow a miscarriage or termination of a pregnancy. […]

So if you have bipolar disorder, whether it is childhood bipolar disorder or any other type, then the first thing that your doctor has probably suggested to you is that you start on some medication. […]